Finished first Rome (Junii) campaign, which was essentially the "learning curve". Hopefully briefly (I know I often go TL;DR without really meaning to), some quick bulletized highlights and take-aways:

*** Ended 10BC, so 262 turns. Military Victory. Normal Difficulty.

*** CW occurred just as I entered 4th Imp level, spawning 6 armies / 4 fleets of Loyalists in Karalis. They took Alalia and Lilybaeum before I corralled them up; took 10-12 turns. I took "Republic" option at CW end (-10% recruitment cost, +2 recruit slots each province), which is a good bonus for building more legions rapidly. But not NEARLY as good as the Empire option (-10% upkeep, -25% corruption).

*** Used MAs and CSs pretty extensively (26% of total settlement count at game end). As game wore on, gradually realized that they were more a butt-pain than they were really worth. During endgame when I was trying trying to get last few settlements, kept fluctuating between 125-135 because MA/CSs would lose territory to rebels, or DW each other, making me choose between them.

*** Rome starting family attributes aren't well balanced...Junii is clearly much better than other two (ag & PO bonus best of the families, while Junii negative trait is less of a big deal than the others). Wanted to try different family for 2nd go...but after looking at them, just couldn't bring myself to do it.

*** Never built Level IV barracks for the top troops, never really felt I needed it. Even with just Level III barracks, I didn't use Praetorians or 1st cohorts either, very much. Veteran legionaries worked just fine all the way through the game as backbone of my armies. That said, I never had to face larger Hellenic or Eastern factions in mid-late game. I had CS'd Sparta and Athens very early. Macedon and Egypt just disappeared before I ever met them. Pontus agreed to be my military ally fairly early, and grew very friendly. Seleucids, Parthia, and Persia just did the endless arise/destroyed/arise/destroyed cycle and never got powerful. Pontus actually did quite well for an AI faction; they never had to respawn, and slowly grew...up to 15 settlements by game end, which I think is pretty good. If they'd been an adversary instead of a friend toward the end, I'm not sure my only-halfway-developed unit tech would've fared very well against them.

*** Kinda fumbled my way through trying to learn economy...overbuilt temples, didn't emphasize commercial ports enough. Myth's guide helped tremendously. By campaign end, could also have easily met all the requirements for eco-victory, EXCEPT the "20 trade agreements" requirement...easily the toughest of the economic conditions.

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Even though I got to a victory before 0AD, didn't really feel like I'd "mastered" Rome as a faction, and wasn't tired of playing them yet, so Rome again in current (2nd) campaign. As mentioned, going Junii again...to my mind, really the only viable choice. About halfway through now (actually a little further than halfway, at about 110BC).

*** Just for RP reasons, trying to match historical limits of Roman expansion. i.e., don't intend to go beyond Rhine and Danube (except maybe Dacia late), will take Britannia at some point but not go up into Caledonia, etc.

*** With experience of last campaign and Myth's guide, economic development has been much smoother and more robust this time around. The basic format: 1) Use Africa as the "breadbasket"; maximize this province for food (including fish ports), and you just really don't have to worry about maintaining a food surplus anywhere else. 2) Build commercial ports in every port slot (other than fleet production province). 3) Build grain and resource towns up as high as feasible, but leave non-resource minor towns at Level I (or II at most). 4) Typical provincial capital build: 1x circus, 1x temple (usually Sacred Grove line), 1x wine market. Final slot is Amphora Factory for larger coastal provinces (ie., 3+ commercial bldgs), or library-line for smaller or landlocked provinces.

*** Prioritizing military tech development this time, just to see if I can tell a real difference between armies of Evocati Cohorts vice Veteran Legionaries. Hoping that Pontus does as well this game as last, will leave him alone for a while so I can have a big dust-up with him in late game, replicating the Mithridatic wars. Perhaps a decent-sized Parthia or Persia will be around as well. Also, have built a Level IV aux barracks in Hellas, just so I can have a few Cretan Archers...loved those guys in R1.

*** Already had CW. Paid very little attention to politics this time, just decided to let it come whenever. Only real preparation I made was ensuring I had 9 full legions as soon as I entered 3rd Imp level, and always trying to keep a couple of them under-committed only 1-2 turns' march from Rome. Also limited myself to only one active enemy at a time. Once I had that, I just took my 3-ambition family general and turned him loose in Spain to get lots of victories and precipitate CW. The war erupted 129BC about halfway through 3rd Imp; the Loyalists spawned in Massalia. 5 armies / 3 fleets this time (appears to be tied to Imp level). They took Tolosa, Genua, Alalia, and besieged Medhlan before I could get to them...strangely, they took 3 full stacks and just parked them up in that mountain pass heading toward Switzerland (which wasn't mine, it's still Helvetii/Raetii); they could easily have taken Velathri and threatened Rome before my legions caught up. Also, Loyalists were aggressive enough in taking under-defended settlements, but then blithely ignored defending them. In any case, they were history by 123BC; definitely took Empire this time. Thought: one loses agents when CW erupts...but Loyalists don't seem to get them. Bug? AI factions can be pretty slippery in using agents to immobilize one army so their stacks can gang up on another un-reinforced army. Loyalists would be a bit more challenging if they had agents and could do this.

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After this campaign, will definitely be time to try someone else. Don't know yet who that'll be. Probably a Hellenic faction with good missile units.